Tuesday morning Mobile Operator roundup

It’s time for a Mobile Operator roundup, and they have been busy since yesterday evening. Once again, rumours have exploded that Deutsche Telekom us considering a purchase of US operator Sprint. On the other side of the world, Australia’s massive operator Telstra has been ordered by the Government to break it’s operation up or face severe restrictions. And Russia’s MTS, Japans’ DoCoMo and UAE’s Etisalat all have news about sales and bids.

T-Mobile USA and Sprint merger in the books?

The net is ablaze with the rumour that Deutsche Telekom might be looking to merge it’s American company, T-Mobile USA, with US operator Sprint. The two companies are 3rd and 4th in the list of US mobile operators, and the merger would allow them to compete with the top two companies - AT&T and Verizon. This wouldn’t be the first time that Deutsche Telekom has considered a merger with Sprint. Roughly the same thing happened with DT’s UK operation recently - T-Mobile UK will be merging with French-owned Orange. However, DT might be hoping to gain some face by initiating the US merger, rather than announcing a merger and waiting for bids to come in. Neither company has made any statements yet.

Aussie government orders Telstra to breakdown

The Australian government seems to have grown tired with the monolithic telecoms company Telstra. The problems centers on Telstra’s national fixed-line network - which is the ONLY national fixed-line network in the country. Other operators have to lease it from Telstra in order to do business. And Telstra has been very happy to milk them for all they are worth. Now the government has has ordered the giant to split its fixed-line assets away from its consumer business, or it will face some serious “competition boosting” actions from the government. Namely, that the government will ban it from buying any new wireless licenses until the split occurs - and wireless is Telstras fastest growing business. This bold, but long overdue, move from the government is supports by the regulators because it will foster competition in the Australian market

NTT DoCoMo jumps ship from Malaysian mobile market

The Malaysian mobile industry must not be looking all that hot. NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is selling its share in Malaysian mobile operator U Mobile, after Korean operator KT Freetel did the same thing earlier this year. Both operators had the same reason for the move - U Mobile, which was set up as a 3G operator through heavy foreign investment, has failed to pull any significant market share away from rival Malaysian operators. NTT has proven its’ dedication to foreign expansion, with purchases from Tata and Axiat and rumours of a US purchase.

Russian interest in Kazakh purchase wanes

Russia’s largest operator, MTS, has announced that it will not be making a bid for Kazakhstans’ Kazakhtelecom. The Russian company had been investigating a 51% purchase of the company, but pulled out for three reasons:
1) There are too many operators in Khazakstan and not enough people
2) Kazakhtelecom is in third place in the country, and it would be too expensive to pump it’s market share
3) Kazakhtelecom already has extensive debts, which MTS is unwilling to shoulder

United Arab Emirates operator Etisalat looks to invest in Sri Lanka

In what has become a truly multi-national deal, UAEs Etisalat has announced interest in bidding for Sri Lankan operator Tigo. Tigo is owned by Luxembourg company Millicom - and India’s Bharti Airtel and BSNL are already involved in bidding for the operator. Etisalat has been focusing on foreign expansion recently, and if it succeeds in buying Tigo it will have subsidiaries all the way across the sub-continent. But it will have to top the reported bid of €82 million from Bharti.